DETERMINING TUMOUR CELL MALIGNANCY BY MEANS OF ENDOGENOUS LECTINS

摘要

The use of endogenous lectins for the in vitro determination of the presence of malignant cells in a given biological sample is described, wherein said lectins are involved in the phenomena of cell adhesion and/or recognition and have a calcium-independent affinity for a site involving mannose residues on glycan ligands, and are immunologically and/or structurally related to CSL or R1, or fragments of said lectins provided that these fragments retain the affinity of the original lectin for said glycan ligands.